1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to yard maintenance equipment and more particularly to a riding air-powered debris mover that is used to clear or collect debris and the like from yards and paved surfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Yard maintenance air blowing equipment is commonly known to provide a blower on a hand cart-style frame. These known blowers are operated by a user pushing the cart-style blower unit about the surface to be cleaned. While the use of cart-style blowers can be attractive for small areas because of their sharp turning capabilities, their manual operation is burdensome when maintaining large areas.
Alternatively, it is known to mount centrifugal fan blower units to tractors or other yard vehicles and the like. These vehicle-mounted blower arrangements address the burden of traversing large yard areas, but compromise maneuverability. They do not provide a degree of maneuverability that is required along the perimeter of a yard. Thus, a vehicle-mounted blower is often supplemented with a cart-style blower. Further, the vehicle-mounted blowers commonly have the blower unit at the rear of the vehicle, behind the user and out of view during operation. This is inefficient and unsafe, requiring the user to turn around to watch the blower, rather than facing forward in the direction of travel.
Known blowers are frequently provided with a transmission for disconnecting the blower unit from the power supply. Such a transmission adds cost and weight to the blower, and can result in increased maintenance and repairs. Alternatively, when blowing is not desired, the power supply can be shut off. This can be inefficient and hard on equipment which must be repeatedly shut down and restarted. Furthermore, many blowers provide a flow of air which is limited to a constant air flow and velocity, and cannot be controlled to accommodate differences in debris type and condition. Thus, supplemental cleanup activities, such as raking or sweeping, may be required.